The Inscrutable Jehovah « de-conversion

There’s a post by Phil Stilwell on the d-C blog that lists some of the contradictions that can be found in the Bible. Leopardus seems to have followed his lead with his own lists, beginning with this one.

Personally, I take issue with Stilwell’s complete dismissal of theism at the start of his post, but I suppose it comes from his experience of theism. I believe in God but am also aware that I cannot fully understand him nor hope to describe him. The idea is that God, if he/she/they/it is God, would be too big for any of us on earth to have any real clue about him/her/them/it. Therefore, I can’t accept a religion that claims otherwise. That’s why I became frustrated with conservative Christianity. Aside from claiming to have the gospel truth on God, they base it on a book that has flaws I cannot ignore but they wave aside with the doctrine of inerrancy.

Stillwell touches on that here with the answer that I have also come to expect from the conservative Christians (in italics):

Are there bible contradictions here? No. The bible is inerrant. If it appears to be contradictory, it is simply further evidence of our inability to grasp the mysteries of god.

So, it’s a mystery of God that the very words upon which his followers are to base their way of life don’t add up? I personally say it’s a mystery of what each Biblical writer wanted to say at the time–and that it wasn’t always what God really wanted to say.

If, that is, he had anything to say at all. That’s what’s kind of fun about agnostic theism. You can imagine all kinds of different gods knowing full well that none of them will ever come close to the real deal–if the real deal is there.